US: Abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender

27 March 2006

USA: Police abuse against lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender people

Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender people across the USA are victims of a systemthat fuels discrimination and facilitates torture,ill-treatment and impunity, said Amnesty International todayas it launched a report on police abuses against people onthe basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The report "Stonewalled -- Still demanding respect" isbased on interviews conducted by Amnesty International (AI)between 2003 and 2005 with members of the LGBT (lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgender) community, victims ofgender-based violence, survivors of police abuse, activists,lawyers and law enforcement officials across the US.

"Theinterviews reveal a very clear and worrying pattern. Casesof beatings, sexual violence, verbal abuse, harassment andhumiliation by law enforcement officials against LGBT peopletake place on any given day in detention centres, prisons,in the home, and on the street," said AmnestyInternational.

In 2004 a women from Athens, Georgia, saidshe was forced into her apartment at gunpoint by a formerCounty Deputy and raped because she is a lesbian. She saidthe officer vowed to "teach her a lesson".

Within the LGBTcommunity in the USA, transgender people, members of ethnicor racial minorities, young people and immigrants areparticular targets of police abuse.

A Native Americantransgender woman told AI that in October 2003 she wasstopped in Los Angeles by two police officers as she waswalking along the street in the early hours of the morning.According to her testimony, the officers handcuffed her anddrove her in the police car to an alley off HollywoodBoulevard where she was beaten, verbally abused and raped.After her ordeal she was thrown to the ground and told"that's what you deserve."

Despite the significantprogress over recent decades in the recognition of LGBTrights in the USA, persistent discriminatory attitudes havecreated a situation in which abuse of LGBT people isfrequently dismissed as "normal".

Victims often do notreport police brutality and other crimes against thembecause they fear hostile or abusive response from thepolice and because, as they know, many reported abuses arenot properly and impartially investigated.

"There arestill some discriminatory laws; but the bigger problem isthe discriminatory way in which many laws are applied, whichoften results in the arrest and detention of individualsjust because of their sexual orientation or genderidentity," said Amnesty International.

In December 2003, ayoung African-American gay activist was waiting at a busstop when Chicago police officers arrested him allegedly forloitering with intent to solicit. Despite providingidentification and corroborating information from theorganization he represents, he was detained for twodays.

"Effective reform requires the backing of thehighest ranks. There needs to be a fundamental understandingof the right to freely express one s sexual orientation orgender identity," said Amnesty International.

AmnestyInternational is calling on US federal and state authoritiesto take action to prevent discriminatory application of thelaw, to investigate all allegations of sexual, physical andverbal abuse against LGBT people by their officials and tobring those responsible to justice.

BackgroundInformation Amnesty International s report is part ofa campaign on the issue of police abuse against LGBT peoplein the USA launched in September 2005.

AmnestyInternational will also be presenting its range of concernsabout the situation of human rights in the USA to the UNCommittee Against Torture and the UN Human Rights Committeeduring 2006.

For a copy of the report "Stonewalled -- Still demanding respect: Police abuse and misconduct againstlesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the USA",please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510012006
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